Regarding the death of missing persons Act of 2 June 1949 (Staatsblad no J 227)

Overview

In the Second World War, approximately 210,000 Dutch people were killed. (Source CBS 1955) (Central Bureau of Statistics).

It has been established that more than 105,000 of them are Jewish Dutch, who died in concentration camps. Based on figures from the 1930 population census, the Jewish population represented 1.4% of the total Dutch population.

On January 1, 1942, the total Dutch population was large; 9,000,722 inhabitants.

Assuming an additional increase in the Jewish population from Germany in the period 1933-1939, its representation can certainly still be estimated at 1.4% or even 1.5% of the total population. This increase may be estimated at 17,000 (Source Prime Minister Hendrikus Colijn in Second Chamber December 1938). This brings the Jewish population in the Netherlands around 1942 to a number of between 140,000 -145,000. The 1947 census shows that 14,346 Jewish Dutch survived the war. It may be assumed that this number has Dutch nationality and can therefore be regarded as survivors. This could mean that more Jewish Dutch have died than is believed to date. The fact that more than 105,000 names of Jewish victims are known does not mean that these are all names of victims.

Registration

Some of the Jews of course died of natural causes in the period between their stay in their place of residence until the moment of deportation, and were deregistered as such from the population register. A presumably small proportion have committed suicide, and those numbers can no longer be verified. An unknown proportion of the Jews who had fled were also registered in so-called immigration registers, and it is not known whether these were also included in the number of victims. Most of the Jews who fled Germany moved in with relatives, and were therefore registered in the population register of the main occupant.

The Jews who have been deported have been removed from the population registers by the government (municipalities) as emigrants. Their death was officially unknown in that period 1942-1945.

Dutch Jewish community statistics

The number of Jewish Dutch is only registered in the statistics as a religious minority during the ten-year Census records. The last pre-war census was in 1930, and the first after it was in May 1947. The census identified and recorded denominational denomination of residents. Between 1930-1939 the Jewish community had normally grown along with the birth surplus in the Netherlands, but an estimated number of German Jews had fled to the Netherlands due to the anti-Semitic atmosphere and anti-Jewish measures in Germany. Answers to Parliamentary questions in December 1938 to Prime Minister Colijn show that an estimated 17,000 of the refugee Jews stayed here. This justifies including this increase in the statistics.

Death and war

The Statistics Netherlands mortality tables for the period 1940-1945 show that 30,408 Dutch people died in the war as a result of direct involvement in it. This is correctly reflected in the statistics. According to the CBS, 39,000 deported political prisoners, workers and soldiers in German Armed Forces were also said to have been killed by war violence. In the statistics of 1943-1946 drawn up in 1948, no clear verifiable figures can be found with regard to these 39,000 persons who were deported etc. who died. The causal link between deaths in the period 1944-1945 and the war as a whole can be assumed without question, but the numbers cannot be distilled from the mortality statistics of that period.

This feeds speculation and as early as 2007 it was claimed by two researchers that the number of Dutch war victims was not 210,000 (CBS), but even 280,000. Doubts about the government-assumed numbers of war victims of 210,000 are legitimate, because these figures are not supported by hard and irrefutable statistics either.

Categories missing

We can subdivide the remaining Dutch people who died as a result of war violence.

5 categories.

1. Sailors who died at sea as a result of war violence.

2. Resistance fighters, and victims of reprisals.

3. A small group of Gypsies (Sinti and Roma).

4. Dutch nationals who have voluntarily or have been forced to work in Germany.

5. Dutch nationals who entered German military service.

In this database, no distinction has been made between these persons and is not exhaustive. The persons registered here were reported missing after the war, and are therefore an addition to the persons who were already known after the war, where they died. The total number of registered missing persons is 133,200 persons (Source inventory National Archives, period 1948-1977). The number of persons in this database is approximately 95,000.

Margin of error

A reasonable margin of error, especially in dates, of births should be allowed for. With regard to the Jewish victims, there is more than enough information to be found to verify the data. Information on Jewish War Victims: Yad Vashem (Israel), Jewish monument Information on all Dutch War Victims, except so-called alleged Dutch collaborators, War Graves Foundation.

Explanation of abbreviations: lg = last married, S = Sobibor, O = Oswiecim (Auschwitz). † = Time and place of death

Of the Dutch who died as a soldier in German service, terms such as Narva, Narwa, Russia, Eastern Front, Kiew, Finland, Estonia should be noted.

Email: Oorlogshistorie

Sources: Personal names 99% Government newspaper other figures CBS statistics 1940-1946.

Translated with Google.